Gong Zhu

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Cards and deal
3. The cards that count
4. Exposing cards
5. Playing
6. Scoring a hand
7. Ending the game
8. Tips for beginners
9. Variants

Overview

Gong Zhu (拱猪, "chase the pig") is a Chinese relative of Hearts. It is a trick-taking game without trumps in which certain cards are worth points – most of them penalties, but a few of them bonuses. The worst card is the Queen of Spades, the "pig"; the best is the Jack of Diamonds, the "sheep". Before play, you may expose four special cards to double or quadruple their effect – if you dare. Players keep a running score, and whoever first drops to −1000 loses the game.

• Players: 4, or 5 – each playing for themselves.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck, no jokers, and paper and pencil for the score.

Cards and deal

Cards rank in the usual order, A (high) K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 (low). There are no trumps.

• Four players: all 52 cards are dealt out, 13 each.
• Five players: remove the 2♣ and 2♦ first, so that all 50 cards can be dealt, 10 each.

Deal and play traditionally go anticlockwise, but clockwise works just as well. Draw for the first dealer; the deal then passes one seat on after each hand. There is no passing of cards: everybody plays the hand they are dealt.

The cards that count

Only a few cards carry points. In the table, a minus is bad and a plus is good:

All 13 hearts together are worth −200.

The ten of clubs

• If the player who takes the 10♣ takes no other scoring card, it is worth +50.
• If they take other scoring cards, the 10♣ is worth nothing itself but doubles the value of all the other scoring cards they take. Positive and negative cards are both doubled.
• The 4, 3 and 2 of hearts are scoring cards, even though they score zero: 10♣ plus the 3♥ is twice zero – which is zero, not +50.

Taking all the hearts

If a player takes all 13 hearts – including the 4, 3 and 2, but not necessarily the pig – their hearts score +200 instead of −200. If that player also takes the pig, the pig is worth +100 instead of −100, making +300 in total. The sheep remains worth +100.

Cards taken in tricks that count are kept face up in front of the player who took them. All other cards are put together face down in a single heap.

Exposing cards

Before the first card is played, the holders of four special cards may expose them – show them face up on the table. Nobody has to. Exposing a card doubles its effect:

The catch: if you expose a card, you may not play it to the first trick in which its suit is led, unless you have no other card of that suit. If you lead the suit of an exposed card yourself and it has not been led before, you must not lead the exposed card itself, unless it is your only card of that suit.

So if you expose the Q♠, nobody has to fear it in the first spade trick – and the others may safely throw out their Ace and King of spades. But beware the player who exposes it having no other spades.

Playing

The player who holds the 2♠ leads to the first trick of the first hand (with five players the 2♠ is still in the pack). In every later hand the player who took the pig (Q♠) in the previous hand leads.

1. Lead: the leader may play any card – there is no rule against leading hearts or spades.
2. Follow suit: every other player must follow suit if they can. If you cannot, you may play any card.
3. Winner: the trick goes to the highest card of the suit led. Whoever wins it leads next.

There is no trump, so a card of another suit never wins the trick. Try to drive the pig out: leading spades makes players play their Queen of Spades if they run out of other spades. Try to make others win the pig and the hearts.

Example: Anna leads 5♠, Ben follows with 9♠, Carla with K♠, Dan holds no spades and throws away A♥. Carla wins the trick with the King. Dan has thrown away his Ace of hearts – but he has given Carla the −50, along with all other scoring cards in the trick.

Scoring a hand

When all the cards are played, each player adds up the scoring cards they took, taking the 10♣ and any exposures into account, and writes the total – plus or minus – on the score sheet.

Example: Dan took Q♠, K♥ and 10♣: (−100 − 40) × 2 = −280. Ben took only the J♦: +100. Carla took A♥ and 8♥: −50 − 10 = −60. Anna took no scoring cards: 0.

Example (exposed cards): Carla exposed the Q♠ before the hand, and Ben took it together with the 10♣ (not exposed): (−200) × 2 = −400 – a very bad hand.

Ending the game

Keep a running total for each player, positive or negative. When a player's total reaches −1000 (or lower) at the end of a hand, they have lost and the game ends. The player with the highest total is the winner. Then start a new game with every total at zero.

Traditionally, the loser is the "pig" and takes a playful penalty – for example, holding a long narrow strip of paper in the mouth until somebody else loses a game.

Tips for beginners

• Don't expose too readily. Doubling is tempting, but an exposed pig can cost −200 – and the first trick of its suit is safe for everybody.
• Expose the sheep (J♦) only if you are fairly sure of winning the trick with it – if somebody else takes it, they gain +200.
• The 10♣ is a double-edged card: with nothing else it gives +50, with a bad card it makes things much worse. Take it early, when few scoring cards are around.
• Get rid of high cards in a suit that contains a scoring card, and keep low cards in the suit of the pig so that you can safely follow.
• Watch which hearts have gone: if one player is collecting them, decide early whether to stop them or help them – all 13 hearts turn −200 into +200.

Variants

All of these are optional – agree on them before the game.

• Partners (four players): partners sit opposite each other. The rules do not say how to score this; agree beforehand, for example by adding both partners' hand scores.
• Hwa variation: the hearts 10 to 2 score the negative of their face value, except that the 4♥ scores −10 instead of −4 (so hearts still add up to −200). If a player takes all the hearts, the values of the pig and the sheep are swapped for all players in that hand. Taking all the scoring cards (all hearts, Q♠, J♦, 10♣) scores +1000. Reaching exactly −1000 at the end of a hand still ends the game, but that score becomes +1000. There is no exposing.
• "Catch the Pig": cards may be put "up for sale" face down to double their value, or face up to quadruple it.
• Blind exposure: if you are dealt an exposable card as the first card you look at and expose it before seeing the rest of your hand, its effect is doubled again – an exposed pig is then worth −400.
• Negative sheep: an exposed sheep becomes a penalty card worth −200 (in some circles −400).
• Zhu Yang Man Juan ("catch pig and sheep in hand"): if a player takes all the hearts, the pig and the sheep, all of them count as positive. With all hearts and the pig but not the sheep, the pig stays negative.